Test notes We'll be comparing the performance of the Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB with that of a slew of competitors, including some of the latest and greatest Serial ATA drives from Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, and Western Digital. These drives differ when it comes to external transfer rates, spindle speeds, cache sizes, platter densities, and capacity, all of which can have an impact on performance. Keep in mind the following differences as we move through our benchmarks:

Max external
transfer rate

Spindle speed

Cache size

Platter size

Capacity

Barracuda 7200.11

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

250GB

1TB

Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

375GB

1.5TB

Barracuda ES.2

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

250GB

1TB

Caviar Black

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

334GB

1TB

Caviar GP

300MB/s

5,400-7,200-RPM

16MB

250GB

1TB

Caviar SE16 (640GB)

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

16MB

320GB

640GB

Deskstar 7K1000

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

200GB

1TB

Raptor WD1500ADFD

150MB/s

10,000-RPM

16MB

75GB

150GB

RE2-GP

300MB/s

5,400-7,200-RPM

16MB

250GB

1TB

RE3

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

334GB

1TB

SpinPoint F1

300MB/s

7,200-RPM

32MB

334GB

1TB

VelociRaptor VR150

300MB/s

10,000-RPM

16MB

150GB

300GB

Performance data from such a daunting collection of drives can make our bar graphs a little hard to read, so we've colored the bars by manufacturer, with the one-point-five appearing in brighter green than the rest of Seagate's drives. Pay close attention to how the 7200.11 1.5TB stacks up against not only its 1TB predecessor, which we've simply referred to as the Barracuda 7200.11, but also the 334GB-per-platter SpinPoint F1 and Caviar Black.

Our testing methods All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test system.